Stanthorpe once again failed to field an under 18’s side and Tigers club president and men’s captain/coach Brendan Minns said he was ropable.

“It’s extremely disappointing – we have three guys who have paid their rego but can’t play up (in A-grade) because they aren’t 17,” he said.

The Reserve grade instead kicked the day off and Tenterfield proved too strong winning 30-20.

“They played pretty well actually.”

Their strong performance proved to hamper the A-grade efforts though, with low player numbers on the day forcing Minns to play a number of players in both games.

“We only had 17 guys for A-grade and seven of those were Reserves who stepped up.

“Three of our starting A-graders had to play reserves too,” he said.

That, coupled with players forced out through injuries and work commitments, meant Tenterfield were going into the vital clash up against it.

The game started slow but Stanthorpe hit the lead on home soil and held on to a 10-8 half-time score.

“We were pretty happy how we were going at the half time break but fatigue kicked in,” Minns said.

“Missing five forwards and our regular fullback didn’t help either – we lacked a little bit in the middle of our defence.

“When we got to their line we took some silly options – that’s something we definitely have to work on,” he said.

Minns said the side were craving consistency.

Stanthorpe stretched their lead late in the second half and came out on top with a 34-14 win.

“They are definitely the benchmark but we’re the only one to beat them this year.

“I’ve got no doubt that if we put it all together on any given day we could beat them again – not being cocky, just looking at the facts,” he said.

In the weekends other A-grade fixture Killarney continued their dismal season by forfeiting their game with Wallangarra.

The Tenterfield ladies did what they do best and battered Stanthorpe’s league tag team in Saturday’s other game at Sullivan Oval.

The Tigers recorded a 14-0 win and held their opposition to nil for the second successive week.

“They did extremely well – for a second week, to hold a team to zip is outstanding,” Minns said.